Jaime Peñafiel, a 91-year-old journalist specializing in royalty, was fired from the newspaper where he worked for the last two decades, after he made harsh accusations against Queen Letizia in a book published last November in which he claims that the wife of King Felipe VI was allegedly the lover of his former brother-in-law.
According to Spanish media Reforma, the official version of Peñafiel’s dismissal was a budgetary issue. However, the journalist himself blames the fact to the statements he made against the queen that would have forced El Mundo to liquidate him.
“It has been published that it was a superior who caused the dismissal, but no, it was me. It was all because of the statements about Letizia and the book,” he said. The journalist has had no qualms in making strong accusations against the queen, whom he pointed out in the text of having an affair with Jaime del Burgo.
This weekend, the journalist took his current situation with fortitude and pointed out that he also assumes things and insisted that he does not regret having published the harsh accusations against Queen Letizia.
“In the book I was very generous with Queen Letizia because I reproduced only two percent of what Jaime del Burgo (the queen’s former brother-in-law) informed me so as not to hurt people’s integrity. I have no regrets, I am the way I am and that’s it“, said Jaime Peñafiel to Semana magazine.
